184 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 253. 



5. The progress of a language is from a smaller 

 to a larger number of letters in the alphabet, not 

 from a larger to a smaller. Thus the Hebrews 

 had at first only ten letters, the Greeks and 

 Latins only sixteen : they increased ultimately to 

 twenty-two and twenty-four. If, therefore, the 

 English had required the '5 and [>, it is fair to 

 suppose that these letters would never have be- 

 come obsolete. Thus we may infer that they 

 were not wanted, and therefore were discon- 

 tinued. This inference will become the stronger, 

 if we can find any probable reason for their ori- 

 ginal introduction. 



6. Such a reason for the introduction, not only 

 of ■?? and \>, but of accents also, may be found in 

 the fact that literature among the Anglo-Saxons 

 was first extensively taught by Theodore, Arch- 

 bishop of Canterbury, in 668, a Greek, and there- 

 fore, like all Greeks, strongly biassed to the pecu- 

 liarities of Grecian learning, which delights in 

 accents, and is the only language in Europe that 

 has retained the theta or single character for re- 

 presenting the two letters t and h. The probability 

 that Theodore introduced both the accents and 

 the theta is very great, and it is greater still when 

 we remark that the Greeks had two forms of the 

 theta, each of which corresponds to one of the 

 Anglo-Saxon forms, 6 to i>, and 3- to '5. 



This is the conclusion to which my own reflec- 

 tion on the subject has led me, and I am in con- 

 sequence strongly disposed to reject these forms 

 and the accents altogether, and so to popularise 

 Anglo-Saxon learning, by removing some of tiie 

 obstacles which now impede its path. But if any 

 of your readers should think it worth while to 

 communicate their opinions, in reply or in con- 

 firmation of this theory, I for one shall be infi- 

 nitely obliged to them for doing so. J. A. Giles. 

 Vicarage, Bampton, Oxfordshire. 



Minor ^utxiei. 



Old Lady Blount of Twichenham. — There have 

 been so many blunders about the Blounts — such a 

 confusion for a whole century between Edward and 

 Michael — such immoral consequences deduced by 

 the biographers from their own errors — but whether 

 Pope did or did not write the verses on Dr. Bolton, 

 I am anxious to know if the above lady was or 

 was not the mother of Teresa and Martha. In 

 the " Pop upon Pope" Martha Blount is described 

 as his near neighbour at Twickenham. From 

 Pope's letters and other incidental references we 

 learn that the mother and daughters were occa- 

 sionally at Richmond — at Petersham — but that 

 they ever resided there does not, I think, appear. 

 Martha, in a letter to Swift, of 7th May, 1728, 

 says, her old gowns are just "fit for Petersham, 

 where we talk of going in three weeks." Curll 



also speaks of "Mrs. Blount of Petersham, in 

 Surrey." Can any of your correspondents refer 

 to proof of residence at Twickenham? If yes — 

 when, and for how long? O. L. B. 



Philip Ayres. — Is anything known of Philip 

 Ayres, author of Emblems of Love in Four Lan- 

 guages^ London, 1683 ? Judging from one or 

 two of the pictures in this book, the "ladys" to 

 whom he dedicated it must have been of a rather 

 " free and easy" character. It is mentioned in 

 Mb. Corner's List, " N. & Q." Vol. vii , p. 470. 



Henry T. RiLEr. 



" L'Amerique Delivree." — Who was the au- 

 thor of a French poem, entitled L^Amerique De- 

 livree^ Esquisse d'un Poenie sur V Independance de 

 r Amerique, published at Amsterdam in the year 

 1783 ? 



The dedication to John Adams is signed L. C. 



D. L. G. UnEDA. 



Philadelphia. 



Chester Inquisition. — Is the original, or a 

 transcript of The Great Inquisition of the Knights* 

 Fees of the County Palatine of Chester, taken in 

 the reign of King Edward II., extant ? 



CESTRIENStS. 



Was the Host ever buried in a Pyx f — On dig- 

 ging a grave south of the chancel wall, and due 

 east of the gable of the south aisle, of Coombe 

 Keynes Church, Dorsetshire, the sexton came on 

 several bones, and a small cup and cover, of 

 pewter I think, extremely corroded, and quite 

 soft, near the head of the skeleton ; also a turned 

 ornament like the shank of a candlestick, of the 

 same metal, near the foot. Can any of your cor- 

 respondents throw light on this ? Was it ever 

 usual to bury a pyx with the host ? Simon Ward. 



Oules, a Lion rampant or. — To what Devon- 

 shire family do these arms belong : Gules, a lion 

 rampant or, crowned proper ; — the crest, a lion 

 rampant or ? T. Hughes. 



Chester. 



A Passage in De Quinceys Writings. — In Mr. 

 De Quincey's Essay on Modern Superstition the 

 following passage occurs : 



" There was no shadow of an argument for believing a 

 party of men criminal objects of heavenly wrath because 

 upon them, by fatal preference, a tower had fallen, and 

 because their bodies were exclusively mangled. How 

 little can it be said that Christianity has yet developed 

 the fulness of its power when kings and senates so re- 

 cently acted under a total oblivion of this great, though 

 novel doctrine, and would do so still were it not that 

 religious arguments have been banished bj' the progress 

 of manners from the field of political discussion." 



What was the recent action of kings and senates 

 here spoken of? 



Unbda. 



Philadelphia. 



